Connecticut: Its The Debt, Stupid

Over the past twenty years, I have been writing to tell readers again and again about the wretched state of Connecticut finances, and the incredible amount of debt heaped upon poor and innocent taxpayers by arrogant, ignorant, and uncaring politicians. I have also written time and time again about the stranglehold of the omnipotent and incompetent Connecticut Democrat Party, in addition to some of the weak-minded Connecticut Republicans that have made that party's job that much easier. Many times, I felt discouraged that I was not getting through. But when I finished and published last week’s article on the sickening and redundant $9,700,000,000 bipartisan approved bonding for largely special-interest and vanity projects, something happened. Multiple thousands pf people read the article over several platforms. My good friend and colleague made this a point of his February 17 Lee Elci Show segment. TONY DE ANGELO LEE ELCI- LEE ELCI SHOW 2 17 2026

 And all of this led to one point of critical mass. The Connecticut taxpayer is mad as hell at politicians and pontificators that have created a fiscal mess that will take years to shovel out of. State taxpayers, livid at the increasing amount of costs they face every day, are finally (and fully) lambasting politicians for the morass they have created for decades.

However, the only group of people not reading that memorandum and acting upon it are those very same arrogant and stiff-necked politicians that created the mess in the first place. Unfortunately the elementary concepts of (what is) the present value of a dollar, the time value of money and the opportunity cost of deficit spending are lost on almost the entire state government, who see fiscal management as throwing a sack of cash at their district and begging reelection. Nothing else matters to them, nor do they really care about the generational burdens they are heaping upon citizens. For reelection is Job No. 1. In turn, you, do not matter in the least.

As this selective arrogance and ignorance grow from elected officials, Connecticut's state government debt grows year in and year out. It has been like this since 1991. A recent Reason Foundation analysis of October 23, 2025, studied and reported on Connecticut's massive debt problem. Their report confirms what I have been stating for several years that the state has $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities. The following figures are taken from this report: (https://reason.org/transparency-project/gov-finance-2025/state/)

Total State Debt: Connecticut #7    $94.43 billion "On a per capita basis, Connecticut had the highest state debt, with $26,187 of debt per state resident at the end of 2023."  

State Government debt per capita Connecticut #1 $26,187

State Government long term debt Connecticut #7 $86.3 billion

 State Government long term debt per capita Connecticut #1 $23,934

 State Government net pension debt Connecticut #6 $40.36 billion "On a per capita basis, Illinois again had the most pension debt, with $11,355 per resident. Connecticut was (2) close behind with $11,192 per capita pension debt."

 State government other-post employment benefit debt Connecticut #7 $16.9 billion "The rest of the states with the most OPEB debt per capita at the end of 2023 were Connecticut ($4,687) ..."

State government other-post employment benefit debt per capita Connecticut #3 $4,687

Total of every state government's outstanding bonds, loans, and notes Connecticut #6 $29.17 billion "In per capita terms, the state governments of Hawaii and Connecticut rank first and second, respectively, with outstanding bonds of over $8,000 per resident."

Per capita amount of every state government's outstanding bonds, loans, and notes Connecticut #2, $8,090

If one examines the limited data one can find for Fiscal years 2024 and 2025, one will see the same excessive debt and borrowing for Connecticut. Connecticut continues to lead the nation in debt. This newer information is difficult to find as the Democrat Administration of Governor Ned Lamont does not believe in transparency whatsoever and would much rather hide these figures from the diligent Connecticut Taxpayers who are enslaved to Connecticut's drug infused spending and debt addictions.  How a state as small as Connecticut has this much debt and spends this amount yearly is incomprehensible, especially in this election year. Realistically, Connecticut politicians could give a damn about how much money they spend and how much debt the state has since it will not be their problem. The protected political elite of Connecticut, along with its cronies, sycophants, toadies, and lackeys will make sure they become vested in a perpetual state Taxpayer funded pension with unlimited lifetime benefits, in addition to lifetime health care, all paid at your expense. Why should these elitists and state-connected people settle for Medicare as the rest of working population must, when their damaging, fiscally inept policies that have driven the state to the brink of bankruptcy, entitles them to a superior lifetime health care plan for themselves and their families? “To the victors go the spoils!"  is the essence of the ruling Connecticut political elite. Connecticut is in essence broke and has been broke for years. And about every person wearing a political uniform does not give a damn about that, if they even understand the damage they are creating.

But again, who cares? 

The new Connecticut state budget, spending over $28 billion dollars for the year, follows the same yearly script. As we have been told for decades, more spending will solve all the state's problems such as food insecurity (as in the yearly salary of non-profit Connecticut Foodshare's President and CEO's Jason Jakubowski at near $400,000), homeless issues, illegal drug deaths and addictions, a crumbling transportation infrastructure,  widespread worker’s compensation fraud, excessively high taxes, a failing public education system where students cannot read nor write, voting fraud in Bridgeport and other locations, fraud and lost funds in the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development as more millions are heaped upon it,  and two incoherent, screaming United States Senators who are an insult to the voters of Connecticut.  And as the debt keeps growing, the same rhetoric is spewed with the same failed debt results. That is the reality of Connecticut's poor economy and horrific economic policies and programs.

The Republican candidates for Governor could easily win the upcoming election and all state offices by campaigning on the debt issue, expense reduction, and full transparency. If only they would challenge the failed economic policies of the Lamont Administration every step of the way and the financial enrichment that the Lamont family has nurtured through their hedge fund and their deceptive investments, victory and permanent change would be assured. Again after many years, we still do not have any answers to Ned Lamont's family hedge fund (Oak HC/FT Partners), investments in Rapyd, a global Fintech-as-a-service provider, and Unqork, both having documented common-investment ties to "Infosys", that same Infosys that received Connecticut taxpayers monies. We have no disclosures as to what happened in the Lamont-Infosys trip to India in February of 2025 completed under that secret cloak of that same-secret ADVANCE CT. Nor are any answers forthcoming from associated companies relating to the Covid-19 crisis that include "Thermo Fisher Scientific", "Sema 4", " Core Infomatics", “Centrellis”. "Ocrulus", "Urjanet", "1life Healthcare", "Galileo Health", "Castlight Health", "Paladina Health", and "VillageMD" to name several. Nor are there ever any answers to the questions concerning the Lamont-related Cayman Island partnerships, large Cayman Islands deals such as the "Horsebarn Hill Investment Fund" hiding in the UCONN Foundation,  and other funny-money deals working through “quasi-public” organizations such as the now-clearly Lamont-connected (and covert) “Connecticut Innovations”.  Again, your standard-issue Connecticut legislator never asks those questions, as getting re-elected, throwing cash, smiling in pictures, and signing on to inane and sometimes perverted causes take on a much higher priority.

Connecticut's debt and deception by the Lamont Administration continues to choke the state's economy. But again, who really cares except for Connecticut's Taxpayers who will never be heard and several non-paid citizen journalists who are condemned and vilified by the socialists who desperately glorify their own failures in society by pushing their perversions as policy parameters. 

Dear Candidates: The game, is over here: The lights need to come on. For once. For you. You need to grasp these concepts and actually, think. Connecticut and its debt are the real and true campaign issues in 2026. 

Too bad no one is listening. 

Connecticut: The Debt Creating Capital of the World

What is Connecticut best known for? Some may say pizza. Some may say the Elm Tree. Others may say the Charter Oak. But in more recent times, Connecticut has a strong history of debt, debt spending, borrowing and massive unfunded liabilities ever since the implementation of Lowell Weicker's "cure-all" state income tax in 1991. At that time, the state was running a large budget deficit and according to Weicker the only way out was to increase taxes in the middle of a recession through the implementation of a progressive state income tax. At  the time of that deadly decision, the population in Connecticut was approximately 3.29 million and the state budget was roughly $7.9 billion dollars. In 2026, the population in Connecticut is approximately 3.6 million. The state budget is going to be roughly $28 billion dollars. Therefore, in a 35-year period, Connecticut has increased state spending by over 300 percentage points with roughly the same amount of population. As time has marched on, the state income tax has increased over the years and is the mainline Heroin that elected officials use to continue to fuel their addiction to socialism type spending and never-ending debt and unfunded liabilities.

What does Connecticut have to show for this spending? Trees? Pizza? Basketball? Crime? Illegal migrants? Nothing, other than poor results, Connecticut ranks continually last and or in the bottom five of many business and economic categories. Connecticut ranks as one of the highest taxed states in the country along with having one of the highest electric rates in the country. Contrary to the spin that has been placed, Connecticut still has between $100 and $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt along with massive unfunded liabilities. These same unfunded liabilities are difficult to trace and account for but that is the norm for how Connecticut's state government works since the 1990s with tons and tons of obfuscation and no transparency. But who cares? As politicians decry fiscal mismanagement and the mortal sin of straying from the “fiscal guardrails” we see a new $10 billion dollar "bipartisan" bonding package (H.B. No. 7288) that just passed in the current legislative session in the spirit of unity, cooperation, and general welfare. (https://ctmirror.org/2025/06/04/ct-bond-package-local-aid-housing/) .

In attempting to understand what was passed and what it will  cost in future interest costs is exceptionally difficult to ascertain. However, from what I was able to gather from this document the result should make Connecticut taxpayers blood run cold. https://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa/Documents/year/UAB/2026UAB20260202_Bond%20Authorizations%20Available%20for%20Allocation.pdf

Here are just some of the items that are further heaping you and your loved ones into perpetual indentured servitude to the Pizza Capital of The World:

Alterations, renovations, and improvements to parking garages in Hartford (where no one wants to go)- $10 million dollars.

Grant in aid to the municipality of East Hartford for the purposes of “general economic development” activities-$30 million dollars.

Grant in aid to the municipality of East Hartford for the purposes of general economic development activities, including the development of the infrastructure and improvements to the riverfront the creation of housing units, through rehabilitation and new construction the demolition or redevelopment of vacant buildings and redevelopment (whatever that all may mean)- $20 million dollars.

Recapitalize CII programs Grant in aid to recapitalize the programs of Connecticut Innovations Inc described in chapter 581 of the general statutes- $20 million dollars.  (Translation: Connecticut Innovations, the "Venture Capital Arm" of Connecticut, and one-time investor in "Sema4, is losing its collective shirt and needs more of your taxpayer money to keep the boiler room fires burning).             

Alterations, renovations, and improvements to existing state-owned buildings for inmate housing programming and staff training space and additional inmate capacity and for support facilities and offsite improvements- $125 million dollars.

Manufacturing Assistance Act (“MAA”) Economic Development and Manufacturing Assistance Act of 1990 and the CT job training finance demonstration program- $450 million dollars.

Cannabis Establishment Loans (for us to see your tax dollars vanish in a smoky, green haze)- $50 million dollars.

Nonprofit Security, (so you can trust the State of Connecticut to protect your house of worship like it protects everything else)- $30 million dollars.

Grants in aid to provide matching funds necessary for municipalities school districts and school bus operators to submit federal grant applications in order to maximize federal funding for the purchase or lease of zero emission school buses (that cannot start in the cold and that just might stop dead on a winter’s day with your child on one) and electric vehicle charging or fueling infrastructure- $40 million dollars

Multi Family Retrofitting Projects in Environmental Justice Communities- $125 million dollars.

The list that I have quoted from is 20 pages long, with each recipient of funding being more quizzical and ridiculous than the next. Absolutely nothing is held back as Connecticut's march to economic oblivion using these bonded projects, continues. Any sane person would wonder as to why Connecticut is now spending over $28 billion dollars and is also forced to bond almost $10 billion more this fiscal year . In addition, it is a sure bet that Connecticut will show little to no economic improvement by the end of year, even with this massive amount of money being spent. But again, who cares? Just look serious, crow about “the necessity of the fiscal guardrails,” and hock out citizens blind with largely irrelevant and fatuous self-aggrandizing projects, over half of which will show nothing tangible. Yet the spending just continues unabated. There is never a mention of cutting spending and or a plan of action to start paying down an unrealistic state debt for a state as small as Connecticut. Meanwhile, additional debt is just loaded on the back on Connecticut taxpayers as the chasm between the state-connected haves, and the ordinary “have not” citizen, grows even deeper.

Connecticut Democrats have done an incredible job of burying citizens in needless debt  for close to four decades. Meanwhile, Republicans, who frankly could and should know better, have compounded the felony by confirming the error of Democrats in such a horrible bill as H.B. No. 7288 in an act of purported "bipartisanship". Nothing here is to be celebrated, and all should hang their heads in shame while the fewer and fewer remaining legitimate taxpayers of the state struggle to make the “have’s”  have more, once again.

 

 

The Fate Of The State

 It is another quintessential election year in Connecticut. In 2026 both legal and illegal voters will be voting for the same five current Socialist Democrat United States Representatives and all of the State offices from Governor down to the General Assembly. And what an election it is going to be! And Connecticut is officially up and running with no man safe as the Legislature has been gaveled into session. In listening to the corrupt Socialist Democrat Governor Ned Lamont's State of the State address, one wonders what state he lives in. It is quite clear to any rational observer that Lamont and his fellow Democrats have done an excellent job in driving Connecticut into economic oblivion, and his current budget will help cement Connecticut into a bottom five lowest ranking economic state in the country for more years to come. And his speech was the usual anti-Trump, anti-ICE rhetoric that defines the Democrat Party in 2026. But no one tied to Lamont seems to care. If you happen to disagree with this Democrat disaster looking for a place to happen you are either 1) racist, 2) white supremacist, 3) hostile, 4) insurrectionist, or 5) any combination of more than one of the items listed above. And in the eyes of the government, you should be rendered inoperative on general principles.

I highly recommend all Connecticut voters read Lamont's speech (https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/read the full text connecticut gov ned lamont gives 2026 state of the state address/?ipid=promo link block2), and draw your own conclusions. (All quotes below are from his speech)

Many will feel it is an insult to Thomas Paine who wrote the revolutionary commentary "Common Sense" back in 1776 when Lamont stated, "He was what we would call today a social influencer. His pamphlets were handed out by the hundreds of thousands. His call to revolution was debated from taverns in Windsor to coffeehouses in Fairfield. By the end of that year, 1776, his optimism was tempered by hard times. Paine concluded, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Two hundred and fifty years later, we find ourselves once again in times that try men’s souls. Masked federal agents have descended on Minneapolis, terrorizing communities, tearing families apart. Two young Americans, a mom and an ICU nurse shot dead. Some of our folks worry that another government shutdown and sudden federal cuts will mean no dinner tonight, no roof over their head, too expensive to take care of a sick child. These are times that try men’s souls." Sorry Ned, but your comparison of Thomas Paine and our American Revolution to today's Anti ICE protests protecting criminal illegal immigrants from deportation is a gross insult to our forefathers of our country.

He added: “Because we have used Connecticut common sense, we have been able to make up for some of the harsh cuts coming out of The White House. We were among the very first to backstop food support for working families. We saw the scared faces and long lines at the food pantries just a few months ago.” So Ned, why does the Head of Connecticut Foodshare Jason Jakubowski make over $400,000 a year? Couldn't that $400,000 feed the many starving people of your economically vibrant state? What about the other bulbous salaries paid to non-job executives in the redundant and covert nonprofits funded by state dollars as the “poor mouth” cries get louder? How does this form of racketeering help the poor and vulnerable? (Rest assured anyone asking the question I just asked is automatically branded to be any one or more of the pejorative epithets mentioned above).

But who are you to question results? Says Ned:  "The Connecticut economy is strong, for now. We have faster economic growth (fourth highest in the country last quarter), more new business startups, and lower unemployment than most of the nation all of which contributes to higher state income, and that allows our 2027 budget to increase investments in education, housing, and nonprofits not to mention our emergency reserve. " ... "Every year we have worked to make life a little less expensive and a little more affordable. Working families earn a little more, surely helps. Remember cheering on the essential workers during COVID? Many of them were earning the minimum wage, which today is almost $17 an hour, up from about $10 since we took office. And after receiving no increase for several years, our state employees have received a wage increase every year we’ve been in office. We appreciate your extraordinary work, and tell your friends we still need more nurses, corrections officers, and state police. We were told by the naysayers that a higher wage would crash the economy, instead a little more money in your pocket is allowing more families to get back on their feet and our economy to prosper." If the economy is so strong then why are there long lines at the food pantries? Why aren’t you crediting President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for sending short-lived Defense projects to Connecticut? What will you do when that ends? What will you do when the last five or six billionaires leave the state? Does State employee salaries, benefits and pensions account for over 20% of the state budget now? Aren't several of your state "nonprofits" currently under federal investigation for fraud? Have you taken one step towards curbing the myriad governance and out of control spending abuse to these "nonprofits" via the Department of Economic and Community Development? Of course, no steps have been undertaken on any of the above, (and by asking these questions I am sure a race-based pejorative epithet is waiting for me).

But this odd and twisted world is takes some funny turns. Lamont, now being influenced by the left-wing part of his party has turned into a Caucasian version of Huey Newton and will now give every school student a "free" breakfast and as always more money for education. Per Ned: “We tried last year, let’s try it again this year our budget provides for free school breakfasts for all of our students. Everybody starts the day right. No shame, no stigma, no empty stomachs. Connecticut has one of the best school systems in the country, but that is not true of all of our schools. In the coming days I will sign an executive order to create the Blue-Ribbon Commission on K-12 Education. A bottoms up look at education with a focus on an updated funding strategy, the foundation grant, and making sure more resources go to the classroom.” So where does the money come from to pay for these "free school breakfast" programs? Your IPO profits from SEMA 4? Some new “Ned Deal” funneled through “Connecticut Innovations?” A new "breakfast tax"? Don't most schools in the state already offer both free breakfast and lunch for needy students? Couldn't the state save money and take out feminine hygiene products out of boys’ bathrooms in state schools? (This last statement now qualifies me to be called pejorative epithets not suitable for a respectable article).

Contrary to the deluded Governor, Connecticut still has $100 to $150 billion dollars in short- and long-term debt with interest thereupon, along with massive unfunded liabilities. To help voters forget about these horrors, Ned proposes to give every taxpayer a $200 tax rebate, or a $400 rebate per family. Rough estimates are that this pseudo-feel-good maneuver will cost the state $500 million dollars. But why hasn't Connecticut still recovered from the recession of 1989? As I stated in January 2026; “The true reality is that Connecticut still suffers from many of the same problems it has faced since 1989. The economy in particular is consistently ignored and overlooked, as it has been for more than 35 years. Connecticut has never recovered economically since that recession of 1988-89. According to the September jobs report published in December, Connecticut is losing jobs. The state ranks 50th in payroll growth from 1989 to 2025 and is one of only three states that have failed to fully recover from the Great Recession”. (https://swickspeak.blogspot.com/2026/01/connecticut economy stinks so let’s make.html) 

But as ridiculous and horrible as this all is, one quote from Ned takes the prize for buying the liberal vote: "That young mother shot twice in the head in Minneapolis the White House called her a domestic terrorist; she reminded me of my daughter. " Ned does your daughter protest at anti ICE demonstrations and tries to drive into them with her SUV while they are doing their job? If so, you have a lot of problems with your family that certainly you are not letting on about.

This State of the State speech summarizes the true lies and deceptions that the Connecticut Democrat Party has been so well known for, for many years. Year in and year out, state spending and debt increases. Year in and year out Connecticut's economy ranks last and or in the bottom five in the country in economic growth, development, business friendliness, etc. Year in and year out Connecticut ranks as one of the highest taxed states in the country. Maybe this year Connecticut taxpayers will wake up to see that they are not better off than they were in any year from 1989 to 2026 with a government dominated by an omnipotent and corrupted Connecticut Democrat Party and they will finally see through the false claims, lies and prevarications leading Connecticut to be the economic and social disaster that it now is.